‘The Originals’ Review: ‘Moon Over Bourbon Street’ Sets the Stage for War

After tearing our hearts into a million pieces with Rebekah’s departure last week, The Originals returned and began this week’s episode with a one month time jump. Things were as tense as ever between the warring factions of the French Quarter and Klaus was more interested in losing himself in his paintings (and Genevieve!) than solving the crisis in his kingdom.

Thankfully, Elijah was more than ready to take over and do what he could to get everyone back on the same page because he wanted their home to be safe again, not only for them, but for Klaus’ daughter (aw!). But it wasn’t just the vampires, witches and humans that needed to come to terms in “Moon Over Bourbon Street.” As the title suggests, Hayley’s werewolf family is officially back in the game.

Admittedly, this was not my favorite episode. Some of the scenes felt like filler. But it was important to get all of the chess pieces on the board as we move into the final five episodes of the season. Anyway, before I get even further ahead of myself, let’s talk about the current war. The vampires and witches hate each other. The humans don’t want to lose their piece of the pie to the supernatural creatures and since Kieran is suffering terribly from the hex placed on him, a new human has stepped up and demanded a seat at the table.

Francesca requested a meeting with Elijah and we learned that her family has been in New Orleans for a long time and she runs the city’s casinos. She’d already talked to the mayor and the police commissioner and has the support of the humans to take Kieran’s place. Elijah agreed to her terms, but he wasn’t overly impressed with her desperation and neither was I. This show has mostly done a good job of introducing new characters, but this one fell flat for me. She didn’t seem like a sophisticated, powerful woman. Instead, she was a little too eager to be in the in crowd. The natural air of confidence she was going for felt way too forced.

Word got back to Hayley in the bayou that ‘her vampire boyfriend’ (!!!) was creating a new treaty and Ms. Marshall was not amused by being left off the list. She stormed into the meeting and demanded to know why the werewolves weren’t included. Elijah sent everyone else away and struggled with his temper as Hayley refused to back down. He didn’t want her involved at all. He wanted her to come home, but Hayley was not going to abandon her people.

Klaus continued to act like he was disinterested in the problem, but then he suggested that Elijah take a page out of their history book and throw a big party. Elijah followed his brother’s advice and I think we all knew it would end in disaster because that’s what happens when people, supernatural or human, that hate each other wind up in the same space. We learned that Marcel turned Diego after werewolves killed his entire family and then Oliver picked a fight with him and Elijah stepped in as did Jackson, who put a stake to Diego’s chest (Hell.No).

Once again, Hayley became the voice of reason. She told Elijah to just kill Oliver because he’d hurt Rebekah. But Diego had led a werewolf slaughter. Hayley pointed out that they were all just going to end up killing each other and none of them would ever be safe. Everyone stopped fighting at that point and Elijah gathered the heads of the factions (I’m such a huge fan of this Mafia-like storytelling) to do a blood oath and sign the treaty. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately because we need drama), not everyone was as on board with the deal as they pretended to be.

First, there’s Marcel, who has been banished from the Quarter. He’s not happy about that and wants his kingdom back, but he doesn’t have many people he can turn to for help. Sadly, his best bet is Thierry, who has proven to be a coward (never getting over it) and he’s reluctant to get involved. Marcel also tries to get Davina back on his side by going through Josh (welcome back, Josh!). He convinces the younger man to help Davina find her confidence and start doing magic again, which she does (side note: is anyone else ready for someone, preferably Davina, to show Monique the door?).

Marcel gives a speech about how he’s right back where he started from, with nothing to lose, and he manages to sell Thierry on his cause. He sold me too, which I was not expecting because I’ve been pretty angry with Marcel over everything that went down with Mikael and Rebekah. But Charles Michael Davis continues to find ways to make Marcel a character to root for and I applaud him for that. Obviously I don’t want to see him come out the victor, but maybe he can make peace with the Mikaelson family again.

Then there’s Cami, someone else I haven’t always been a fan of, but ever since she overcame compulsion, I’ve loved her. This week, she had to deal with her uncle’s continuing slide into darkness and narrowly escaped being his first victim. Cami’s solution was to get super drunk and then hook up with Marcel. These were fun scenes because no one was acting like it was true love or the start of an epic romance. It was just two friends, turning to each other in their time of need and having fun. Cami was super adorable basking in the afterglow, but Marcel was distracted by a dream catcher on her shelf, which he stole on his way out.

Marcel then proceeded to crush it on the pavement. His time around witches has made him smart because Genevieve had been watching them through it. But why was she spying on Cami? Gen is already in Klaus’ bed and she’s got a seat at the table to represent the witches so why is she so interested in Cami? I love that Marcel got rid of it – I just want to know why it was there in the first place. What are you up to, Gen?

Of course there was another person playing backdoor politics while Elijah and Hayley were trying to bring peace to the Quarter – Klaus. Naturally Elijah was right and Klaus was more interested than he seemed to be, but Klaus wasn’t looking to side with the vampires, he wanted to make a deal with the werewolves. Klaus pulled Jackson aside and showed him something Esther had made centuries earlier – a moonlight ring, similar to the daylight ring, which would keep werewolves from having to turn. Naturally, Jackson was intrigued at the idea of having more power.

But what is Klaus thinking? Initially, my first thought was that he’d completely lost his mind and his brain had left town with Rebekah. Why else would he side against Elijah when his brother is working overtime to make their home safe for their family and Klaus’ daughter? Then I saw a plausible theory (on Tumblr, obviously). Maybe Klaus is just pretending to side with the werewolves and his plan is to make them vulnerable and then kill them once and for all. That would certainly be one way to make sure that he didn’t lose his daughter to the bayou.

I really hope this turns out to be the case for a few reasons. One, I don’t like thinking that Klaus is a moron. Two, no one is better at running a long con than Klaus Mikaelson. Anyone who watched season two of The Vampire Diaries knows that for a fact. Three, I really dislike the werewolves and I want something bad to happen to them, especially Jackson and Oliver. The latter was already on my list for hurting Rebekah, but now that’s he’s gone after Diego? He needs to die, preferably painfully. And I was not here for him flirting with Davina. Back off the jailbait, creep.

Again, this was not my favorite episode because it had some slow parts, but it was an essential one. Battle lines have been redrawn once again and a lot of people are keeping secrets that are likely to come back and bite them. We have to wait almost a month until the next episode and judging by the preview, those secrets are going to start spilling out fast once the series comes back from hiatus.

Now it’s your turn. Did you enjoy the episode? What did you think of the new players? Does Marcel have a chance? Will Cami find a way to save Kieran? Is Klaus playing the werewolves or does he really think he’s on the right side? Hit the comments and share your thoughts and theories with us!

About the author

Mandy Treccia

Mandy Treccia has served as TVSource Magazine’s Executive Editor since 2016, formerly as Editorial Director from 2012-2016. She is an avid TV watcher and card carrying fan girl prone to sudden bursts of emotion, ranging from extreme excitement to blind rage during her favorite shows and has on more than once occasion considered having a paper bag on hand to get her through some tough TV moments. Her taste in TV tends to rival that of a thirteen-year-old girl, but she’s okay with that. Follow her on Twitter at @SourceMandy.